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Hanoi Striving To Reduce Personal Vehicles

Hanoi’s Mayor Nguyen Quoc Trieu has agreed to the 19 solutions to prevent traffic jams and accidents suggested by the city’s Department for Transport and Public Works and Police Agency. One of the key solutions is reducing the number of personal vehicles in circulation.


According to the Hanoi Traffic Police Division, 58,000 motorbikes were registered in 2006, an increase of 74% over the previous year. Hanoi now has 175,000 cars and 1.76mil motorbikes, a quite high figure compared to the current situation of roads in Hanoi. The police agency has suggested reducing the number of motorbikes rolling on Hanoi’s streets by setting new high fees on vehicle registration.

“As the current transport infrastructure cannot meet the overly high development of vehicles, it is necessary to discourage local residents from buying new vehicles,” said Dao Cong Hai, Head of the Traffic Police Division. He said that someone in Hanoi has registered 70 motorbikes.

Another suggested solution is to limit the number of motorbikes running in rush hours. Motorbikes may be banned from circulating on Thang Long – Noi Bai, and 1B roads during certain hours.

City authorities are also considering setting up a quota for car development. Car owners must register their plans to buy cars with city agencies and they must have regular parking places.

Tran Danh Loi, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department for Transport and Public Works, has stressed the need to reduce the number of personal vehicles. He has suggested that 10-tonne trucks pay fees for entering the city. In China, many local authorities have taken actions to reduce motorbikes, while car owners must join bids to have their cars put on the streets.

However, some experts are still calling for thorough consideration of the suggested solutions. Prof Nguyen Xuan Dao, Chairman of the research team on Vietnam’s transportation, said that the reduction of personal vehicles must be undertaken together with the increase of public transportation means. In Singapore, for example, people have to queue to register cars, but in this country there are many alternative means of public transportation, like metros and buses.

Traffic accidents seen more in inner city than in the suburbs

According to the Hanoi Traffic Police Division, the number of traffic accident cases decreased a little in 2006 (998 cases, killing 500 persons, injuring 730 persons, down by 15% in number of cases, 6% in deaths and 17% in injuries).

The number of traffic accident cases involving pedestrians accounted for 15% of total cases. People aged between 18 and 25 caused 38% of total accidents. A noteworthy thing is that the accidents in the inner city accounted for 52% of total cases, while the figure was much lower in previous years, at 15-20%.

Mr Hai has suggested raising the punishment levels on traffic law violators. He has also asked for measures to be taken to prevent schoolboys from riding motorbikes to school.

“The schools in Hanoi must cooperate with the police to ban schoolboys from riding motorbikes. The work must not be assigned only to the police. Headmasters of schools must take responsibility before the Mayor about that,” Mr Hai said.

Mr Hai has also urged city authorities to seek Government approval to set up different working hours for central and local agencies situated in Hanoi so as to reduce traffic jams. Central agencies, universities and schools will begin their working shifts at 7:30 am and finish at 4:30 pm, while local agencies’ working hours will be from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm.

Traffic safety has become such a burning matter that state management bodies have even proposed the establishment of a research institute on traffic issues which would give the most suitable solutions. Mr Loi has asked for a camera system to be installed at crossroads and main streets to record the traffic violation cases, which would help fine violators.

Mayor Nguyen Quoc Trieu said he found the solutions suggested by the city’s Police Agency and the Department for Transport and Public Works suitable. However, he has asked the two agencies to take further surveys in order to draw up the best solutions. He has assigned the city’s Department of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs to compile the project on setting up new working hours for organs and enterprises located in Hanoi.

The mayor has every reason to be cautious about making decisions. The decision by city authorities two years ago on prohibiting local residents from owning more than one motorbike has been facing strong opposition from the public. Meanwhile, experts have referred to provisions in the law showing that that is a violation of the law